Over the last two decades the ARMATURE team has worked hand in hand with our accreditation software and certification customers to create an accreditation management software product capable of managing both straightforward and complex data collection needs and workflows. We’re constantly identifying new and better ways of doing things and responding to new scenarios faced by these customers.
We thought it might be useful to break down some of the features and functionality within our product, ARMATURE Fabric, to demonstrate some of the components used by our customers to manage their accreditation and certification cycles. Let’s start with three of our most important components: CRM/CXM; Process Management; and Instruments.
CRM/CXM
Our CRM/CXM module captures information relevant to accreditation and certification use cases. Customers can track organizations, programs, structures, contacts, and profile information and captures historical actions and activities that an entity has undertaken. This includes the processes that they have been involved in, applications, audits, self-studies, reviews, decisions made, and a whole range of documents that have been uploaded, issue history, and communications. The goal is to enable accreditors to be able to access any information about an entity quickly, easily, and effectively.
Process Management
This module enables you to configure processes and workflows to match the way your organization manages things. You’ll be able to set up easy-to-follow rules that allow users to take action and auto-complete workflows or auto-advance to the next set of activities, configure milestones, and allow users to create, assign, and track tasks as part of any workflow activity. Below is an example of a straightforward process that has been configured within ARMATURE Fabric.
Instruments Module (data collection)
Instruments within ARMATURE Fabric are means of collecting data about an organization, facility, product, or program. Instruments can include application forms, self-assessments, audits, surveys, or reviews. Our software enables you to visually configure all types of instruments using rich content, standards, ratings, questions, and findings. You can also enable comments, issues to be captured, and document and evidence uploads for specific items.
When configuring questions, you can choose from several question types, including text (short form, narrative), choice (radio, checkbox, dropdown, list box), number (whole, decimal, currency, percentage), date (date, date/time), and document upload.
You can also reference one or more criteria (standards and best practices) from pre-built catalogs or add your own configurable text. Ratings and findings can also be captured against criteria. You can even weight ratings to help measure effectiveness as per your business rules.
Dashboards
ARMATURE Fabric uses configurable dashboards that are embedded in each area of the application that provide an overview of activities and progress. Each dashboard is configured for the type of user who is accessing the software. For example, a staff dashboard may provide an overview of how many site visits are currently in progress, how many issues are currently open, or how many tasks are currently assigned to you. Staff dashboards can help you visualize trends and outliers, explore summary information, and track overall performance.
Each of our dashboards include click-through functionality that allows you to quickly access and take action on the records relevant to the specific data shown in your dashboard. If your dashboard shows that there are 2 issues, for example, you will be able to click directly through to those issues and address them as needed.
Because ARMATURE Fabric allows you to have multiple personas within the system (for example, staff, volunteers – such as site visitors – organization representatives, and board members), each dashboard is configured specifically to meet their needs.
In addition to these three core features, ARMATURE Fabric is shipped with many more modules and features to support the business of accreditation and certification. These include reporting, document management, publications (email and document templates), continuous professional development, and beyond. We look forward to telling you more about these in a future blog.
Have Questions?
If you are interested in learning more about ARMATURE Fabric or our accreditation software, in particular, get in touch with our team by filling out our “Contact Us” form. We’d be happy to answer any of your questions and help you get started. Thanks for reading.
